In many areas of endeavor, gatherings of large numbers of persons are very common. For example, associations of companies in many particular fields each year stage a convention or trade show of products sold by exhibiting member companies. Such a convention is an important marketing method for the participating firms. Attendance at such gatherings may total many thousands of persons, and the sponsors of the convention, as well as the participating firms, wish to have detailed information concerning the attendees. This may include the attendee name, company name and address and other information in easily recordable form so that further information regarding future conventions, new products or other information may be mailed to specific attendees. For example, while some information may be obtained about a product at an exhibitor's booth, it very often is necessary for an attendee to give his name to an exhibitor so that the requested information may be supplied to him at a later date. For this purpose, embossed plastic cards are produced, similar to the familiar credit card, which bear the attendee's name and address. When an inquiry is received, the exhibitor imprints a form with the inquiring attendee's card and thus reduces the time that each attendee must wait to record his inquiry.
Printing card holders are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,657,834 (Tauber, 1972) and 4,259,797 (Belser, 1981) which disclose a holder having a transparent exposed compartment adapted to receive a printing card/identity insert therein. These prior holders enable the removal of the rigid plastic card to enable the imprinting hereinbefore described, and the transparent pocket in which the card is received allows the attendee to be identified by a glance at the card displayed in the pocket which bears his name or affiliation.
While the described holders which retain machine-readable plastic cards offer certain advantages over the traditional visually-readable convention badges, there are substantial problems in their use. For example, imprinting machines have been standardized to accept a plastic card of about 33/8 by 21/8 inches and such cards are of insufficient size to contain all of the required information in visually readable form. For example, as an attendee approaches an exhibitor's booth, it is virtually impossible for an exhibitor to determine the attendee's name, company or status until the machine-readable card is removed from the holder. In this regard, in view of the large number of attendees at such meetings, it is often imperative that the exhibitor be able to identify an approaching individual so that prior contacts with the individual or the individual's employer may be recalled. Even if the printing card is provided with embossed information of sufficient size to be visually readable at a distance, there is insufficient space on the printing card to provide discernible information regarding the convention or sponsoring organization which enables convention officials to determine the individual's proper presence at the convention or in certain areas thereof. Moreover, information cards which contain data in electronically readable form, e.g. computer readable magnetic tape, provide even a smaller area for the display of visually-readable information.
Thus, it has been a desideratum in the convention badge art to provide a badge which facilitates the visual identification of admissible attendees by convention officials and the identification of an individual's name, company and status in visually-readable form, yet allows the recording of information by a machine-readable card.
In accordance with this invention, a convention badge is provided, the badge having a compartment formed of superimposed connected sheets of material which removably receives a card bearing machine-readable information regarding the individual, a second card or cards bearing visually-readable information regarding the individual, and means for retaining the badge on an article of apparel. The badge further includes a pocket, also formed of super-imposed connected sheets of material and an insert bearing machine-readable information regarding the individual's status, if required. In one aspect of the invention, the second card overlies and is adhesively attached to the compartment to present identifying information regarding the attendee which is visually-readable at a substantial distance.
The use of the badge in connection with the computer-controlled registration system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,233,661 is particularly advantageous. In that patent, provision is made for a computer-controlled process which combines the registration procedure for large trade shows and production of the machine-readable information cards for convention attendees. Registration data is entered from terminal devices, and a programmed general purpose computer edits and formats the entered data and transfers the registration information to card embossers and printing devices which automatically produce both the machine-readable and visually-readable information cards under computer control. Thus, the production of both the machine-readable and visually-readable cards may be computer controlled.
According to the invention, attendees at a trade show or convention may be identified by providing the attendee with a badge as heretofore described, and the individual may be identified, for admission to a display hall or by the exhibitors, by the visually-discernible information on the badge. Specific information regarding the attendee may be retained by observing and manually recording the visually-observable information, or by removing the rigid card therefrom and retaining the machine-readable information by a recording means.